A year ago: ‘Banjo Fred’ Starner

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‘Banjo Fred’ Starner was an economics professor and folk singer who documented hobo music and culture.

He often explained that hobos weren’t bums but ‘people who rode the rails for a year or two to get their act together, then went back to rejoin the rest of the world.’

Starner died a year ago at age 72.

‘Fred Starner was very much a musician of the people,’ said Mary Katherine Aldin, a folk-music historian. Here’s a video from a performance in 2008.

In his ‘Hobo’s Lullaby,’ Starner sang:

A hobo is life at its core
Happiness is not making more
and more.

Starner’s obituary appeared in The Times on Nov. 11, 2009.

-- Keith Thursby